The Japanese gaming juggernaut has released games like 'The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom' and 'Mario and Luigi: Brothership' to relative success this year, but producer and designer Shigeru Miyamoto has now admitted the company is having to face year-on-year increasing development costs.

In a recent investors Q+A session, the Nintendo higher-up said: "Since our scale of development has grown, a corresponding increase in costs is, in some respects, inevitable."

Even so, Miyamoto insisted Nintendo was still committed to delivering high-quality products that "[its] customers will be satisfied with".

He continued: "We continue refining our products until we are confident that we have created something that our consumers will be satisfied with. With that in mind, what is important is to find ideas that are worth honing, and this has not changed since the era of Nintendo Entertainment System.

"Everyone has different interests, so we cannot make sweeping statements about what ideas are worth pursuing. However, one thing we are sure about is that it should be something which has not existed in the past.

"The more you polish something that has never existed before, the more value it brings."

The Nintendo boss added the studio wanted to prioritise developers who "take this unique concept to heart", though will only fund and release games "only after [they] are confident in the product".

He said: "We believe that not all products require large costs. Even in the case of video games, with the current technology it is possible to create fun games with a small number of developers in a short period of time.

"We believe it is important not to lose sight of this perspective."